plastic gear for Enco 9x19 or Grizzly 4000

[Vavet]

I have an Enco 9x19 lathe in the lab where I work. I don't know much about its history. I've only been working here about 8 months and its been here longer than I have. I think it came from another company that my company acquired at some point in the past.

Anyway, I've played with it a little and found the power feed does not work which I attribute to a broken plastic gear in the headstock. I contacted the Enco company for a quote on a replacement gear, which they tell me is available for $95! Yowsers! That seems like a lot. Based on some information I found here and other forums, I looked at the Grizzly website to see if they have a badge-engineered version of my Enco lathe. I think the Grizzly G4000 lathe is identical to the Enco I have. Grizzly does not offer a plastic gear, but they do offer a metal gear for $18.25.

According to the information I found on the Enco website, the plastic gear is supposed to be there to provide a weak point to avoid damaging something else. Do you think it's wise to use the metal gear in it's place?

 

[Ulma Doctor]

are both the driven and drive gears plastic?
if so, one of the gears will still give or break to reduce catastrophic failure
if the other gear is steel, you would need to be very deliberate in your use of the lathe.
a mistake is less forgiveable.
but if the grizzly is using it steel gear to steel gear, there is confidence on their part that it would work.

my 2 cents, get the 18 dollar gear and just be real careful when your workin

mike)